Alex Pappas

Alex Pappas is a Washington D.C.-based political reporter for The Daily Caller. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and the Mobile Press-Register. Pappas is a graduate of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., where he was editor-in-chief of The Sewanee Purple. While in college, he did internships at NBC's Meet the Press and the White House. He grew up in Mobile, Ala., where he graduated from St. Paul's Episcopal School. He and his wife live on Capitol Hill.

As actress Ashley Judd apparently ponders a candidacy for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, a well-funded conservative super PAC is going up with ads Wednesday in the Bluegrass State portraying her as an ardent Obama disciple who is “aggressively and delightfully radical.”

American Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said the ad is backed by $10,000 in paid digital advertising, which will run for two weeks in Kentucky. The ad also takes hits at Judd for calling Kentuckians “hillbillies,” for calling Tennessee “home” and for being a “Hollywood liberal.”

Judd has signaled that she’s interested in running for the Democratic nomination to take on Mitch McConnell, the state’s Republican senator and Senate minority leader.

Crossroads’ decision to run ads against her is an early signal that Judd is being taken seriously as McConnell’s potential opponent.

The reason Crossroads is linking Judd to Obama is simple: the president remains unpopular in Kentucky.

The ad ends with the phrase: “Ashley Judd: An Obama-following radical Hollywood liberal, who’s right at home in Tennessee. I mean Kentucky.”

“At American Crossroads, we hope you enjoy watching the ad as much as we enjoyed creating it,” Collegio said Wednesday.